Chinese Porn Censors Applaud Two Websites

SHANGHAI, China - In its ongoing effort to purge the Internet of "vulgar or questionable content," the Chinese government has praised two websites for their removal of offending material, while criticizing another for not taking action.

Beijing's Xilu.com shut down a picture-posting section and Shanghai-based BlogBus.com weeded out material in its blog platform.

According to the Shanghai Daily the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center commended the two sites for taking "effective measures."

The center, however, named Guangdong's Chinawap.cn as an offender because it failed to remove all lewd pictures, despite shutting down a photo album program.

Since Jan. 5, the Chinese government has shut down 1,507 websites. Major internet portals and search engines such as Sina, MSN China , Google China , and Baidu have been warned to remove pornography and offensive content.